The Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) witnessed a bullish trend in the week that ended Thursday, amid increased participation of both the institutional and small investors.
The bourse saw highest volume of share trading for the first time, backed by power and energy, manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors and the share prices registered a significant rise this week as well.
During the week, the benchmark index DSE General Index (DGEN) gained 77.91 points to end at 2653.11. The All Shares Price Index (DSI) ended at 2206.19 with a rise of 59.54 points and the DSE-20 blue chip index finished at 2144.53 with a gain of 38.42 points.
Some positive developments and stability seen by the market in the last two weeks because of combined efforts of regulator, bourses and merchant bankers, helped to bring back the investors' confidence that was badly shattered earlier, according to experts.
In the last session Thursday, turnover at the prime bourse crossed Tk 6.00 billion for the first time in history, lifted by the central bank's short term interest rate cut that signalled easing of credit for the private sectors.
Manufacturing, power and pharmaceutical shares responded to the Bangladesh Bank's adoption of expansionary monetary policy as they boosted the turnover to Tk 6.12 billion, up from the previous record of Tk5.90 billion set on October 12 last year.
Analysts said the massive fund flow was due to the central bank's interest rate cut on repurchase agreement (repo) and the government's announcement that it might allow undeclared income to be disclosed.
"Both institutional and retail investors poured funds on the stocks pushing up the turnover to a new height. The bullish trend was aided by National Board of Revenue (NBR)'s hints that it would allow legalising undisclosed income," said a banker.
The DSE shortened the trading days to four from five due to public holiday on the occasion of Eid-e-Miladunnabi.
In the last session, share prices of the insurance sector dipped, as the Cabinet Division sent back two ordinances related to the insurance sector prepared by the immediate past interim government.
During the week, the gainers took a strong lead over the losers. Out of 297 issues traded, 186 advanced, 75 declined, four remained unchanged and 32 were not traded in the week.
The daily average turnover posted a rise of 43.81 per cent or Tk 5.30 billion against the previous week's k Tk 3.69 billion.
The market capitalisation slightly increased to Tk 1.02 trillion from Tk 1.00 trillion of the previous week.
Summit Power was the top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 1.13 billion traded and accounted for about 5.36 per cent of the week's total market turnover of Tk 21.21 billion at the prime bourse.
In the week, Shinepukur Ceramics Limited, Beximco Pharma, Summit Alliance Port Limited, Beximco Limited , S Alam Cold Rolled Steels Limited, Eastern Housing Limited, Jamuna Oil, Apex Tannery and Titas Gas were the other turnover leaders.
The top ten gainers were Dhaka Fisheries, BD Autocars, Gulf Foods, Eastern Housing Limited, Ambee Pharma, Gemini Sea Food, Monno Ceramic, Bangladesh Lamps, Summit Alliance Port Limited and Aftab Automobiles.
The prime bourse took some tough measures, including exclusion of Z-category companies from the top ten gainers' list, trade halting and delisting, that continued to put a brake on the unusual price movement of junk shares for the second consecutive week.
The DSE's decision to exclude the junk shares from the top ten gainers' list became effective Thursday.
Out of the week's top ten losers, nine came from Z-category shares.
The top losers were Sreepur Textile, Bangladesh Luggage, Lexco, Bangla Fine Ceramic, Dandy Dyeing, Sonali Aansh, Al-Amin Chemicals, Dhaka Bank, Meghna Condensed Milk and Sajib Knitwear.
The A-category issues accounted for 77.23 per cent of the total turnover in value during the week, while B-category issues accounted for 4.73 per cent, N-category 14.10 per cent and Z-category 3.94 per cent.
